Much, much preferring this to High Violet on the first several listens. It sustains its mood beautifully, without silly production choices or songs about zombies or clunky financial crisis references. The National's sound is such a delicate thing that even small missteps break the spell completely, and this one doesn't have any missteps.

Berninger's never sung better, but the paradox of this record is how listening to Berninger puts renewed attention on lyrics, which I never wanna do with these guys. I mean: “If you lose me I’m gonna die,” “There’s a science to walking through windows,” and “Don’t tell anyone I’m here/I’ve got Tylenol and beer.”

On first listen: It's very subdued, introvert. Solemn almost. At first I thought it's not really 'waking up', but I agree with Evan that it 'sustains the mood'. It's seems they really carved away the odds 'n sodds and focused on perfecting this one sound. I need to hear it a lot more, but I for one think that is a very admirable approach.

The album really hit me hard on maybe my third passive listen. Like, really bummed me out in a way most sad music doesn't (and in a way it didn't on my first few active listens to it). I can't wait to take a long, late drive with it and see how it plays.

Wow, just starting in on this and this album sounds about as good as this sort of music gets. Really sad and gorgeous. Def. of a piece with their past, which means, basically, like U2 had U2 taken a different, darker, less populist path.

the national are at their best for me when they construct their songs around two, three, really strong hooks

feel like geese of beverly hill / city middle from alligator are the best examples of this for me, and the lyrics make them, "serve me the sky with a big slice of lemon" / "you were parking your car, you said i'm overwhelmed, you were thinking out loud"

probably the second one is a lil' too on the nose about what a sad sack indie loser finds poignant but *looks in mirror* *laughs nervously*

xxxxp Many, many years ago, when Boxer came out, I asked him about all his lyrics about drinking and pouring a drink and being drunk, etc, because they seemed to reflect the kind of desire to escape from reality and responsibilities that songwriters typically condemn or demonize. But his reasoning for all the drinking references is that he just really enjoys drinking. For him, drinking is a romantic impulse, not a shameful one.

“In songwriting, there aren’t any rules. You don’t have to grow up and be responsible. When I’m sitting, writing lyrics and drinking wine, I don’t want to have to solve the issues in my life or anything else’s, or write a political song. That’s the last thing I wanted to do: I just want to get kind of drunk. And so, for me, the band is the place to do that. The rest of my life is what I take seriously.”